


Captive's Choice

by Bam4Me



Series: Gilded Cage [1]
Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alice Quinn took the personality potion im so tired of dealing with that bullshit, Baby Monster, Episode Fix-it, Episode: s03e05 A Life in the Day, Fix-It, Goddess Julia Wicker, Jailer Quentin, Julia Wicker is a Good Friend, Kid Fic, M/M, Magic Is Saved, Parent Quentin, Supportive Eliot Waugh, The Monster isnt evil, Warden Quentin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 11:10:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20487929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bam4Me/pseuds/Bam4Me
Summary: Magic needed to be restored, and the monster needed to be kept away from the rest of the universe. Quentin always wondered if he was too soft to fulfill this quest, and it's only just now occurring them all, that being soft might be the only thing that gets them through this.





	Captive's Choice

**Author's Note:**

> oof
> 
> fillorysuggest.tumblr.com (yes I changed it, the previous blog was soft blocked so none of my posts would show up in tags and I got annoyed)
> 
> Okay, so. MAJOR fix it. Quentin actually becomes the warden, Eliot doesn't end up trying to kill the kid, Julia stays a goddess, Alice fucked off somewhere else to stop. Being. There. (God I don't actually hate her but also I hate her guts ugh ugh ugh she's only okay in AUs tbh i just. Nope.) And a surprise twist to giving both Queliot a good home without bullshit as well as handing them another kid to take care of because I think they would love that and tbh I'm a fan of the idea that ageplay can fix most personality disorders so why the fuck not. 
> 
> Warning: I have only seen up to halfway through season 4 episode 1, and I only got that far yesterday when I decided to write this fic. Lol yall I discovered this show like two weeks ago it might be my new obsession. I don't actually care about canon tho, as is my case with. All. Fandoms. So lol. But. whatever. Bye.

“I’m not letting you stay there.”

Quentin didn’t look up from his book, unable to watch Eliot pacing across the room. He was a ball of nervous energy at the moment. When they had magic, Eliot would channel it into the most intricate thing he could think of at the moment, usually some sort of homesteading project, something for Teddy to watch and learn at his side. 

There was no magic here. No son to entertain. Not even a  _ them _ as far as they knew to lean against each other. No puzzles to finish. Just possibly losing each other for the rest of forever, while Eliot helped Margo rule Fillory, and Quentin lived in a black castle with an actual monster.

Well, in all honesty, no one said they couldn’t lean against each other, but Quentin knew Eliot would refuse again and again to be distracted from this. He was thankful Alice had decided not to go with them, if only because Eliot would likely be avoiding them like he usually did when they were together. Eliot wasn’t a jealous person, not in the slightest. He never would have shared Quentin with Arielle if he was, but there was something distressed in his eyes when he watched Alice together with him. Like she was some monster preying on him. 

Quentin  _ wished _ he was strong enough to do whenever she came in the room. She wasn’t herself, she wasn’t normal, and her every move made him sick now days. It hurt to be near her.

But if she was here, Eliot would be avoiding him again, and they wouldn’t be talking this through, and Eliot would likely end up doing something stupid and crazy as a result, like try to kill a monster older than a god.

Quentin finally looked up when Eliot came to stand by Quentin’s desk in the Muntjac. Eliot was deadly silent and still now. 

“You have a plan, don’t you?”

Quentin swallowed, looking a little nervous for a moment, before reaching out for Eliot’s hand, giving a gentle little tug on it to pull him closer. 

Things weren’t the same as in that other life. They lived that life together, in a world with magic, with a son and a wife. They lived a peaceful life in a garden, and built something beautiful. 

This was different, but Eliot stepped up to him like he always did when Quentin asked him to, and Quentin couldn’t help feeling light in his chest for a moment. 

“She told me, about him. The monster. He… he doesn’t have a name, El…”

Eliot squeezed his hand, but it felt less reassuring than it usually did, and when he looked up at the man, he could see a tightness around his eyes. Eliot was far from convinced of anything right now. 

Quentin stood up from the desk and grabbed his bag, pulling something out. “She said. She said that he’s… childlike. He thrives off being loved and coddled, he needs a caregiver, not a jailer.”

Eliot looked  _ devastated _ at that. “So this is why? You’re doing this because you want another baby?”

Eliot looked like he wanted to scream, to throw something, and Quentin expected him to pull away and rage, pull at his hair, yell, something. He didn’t expect to be pulled into his arms, stumbling a little as he went, right hand clutching around the vial while he tangled his left in Eliot’s shirt to steady himself. Eliot’s face pushed into his hair, and Quentin  _ ached _ to make it all better. To say he’d restore magic and come back to Fillory with him. 

He didn’t say that. 

“You’re doing this, because you want another baby. You know you could have told me, I’d have done  _ something _ . I don’t know, there are spells we can try-“

Quentin’s heart broke because he  _ did want _ , but this wasn’t how it was going to go. “I’m sorry, El, this isn’t… listen, the monster isn’t actually as strong as we think it is. Just because we can’t kill it, doesn’t mean we can’t affect it with potions and such.”

Eliot pulled back to look at him, before shaking his head and going to Quentin’s abandoned chair, and for a moment, everything was as it was in that other life, and Quentin did something he’s resisted doing time and time again since they got those memories back. He hesitated for half a moment, before crawling into his lap like he’d done so many times before, wrapping his arms around Eliot’s neck and pushing his face in there. They sat, just breathing each other in for a few long minutes. 

Eliot relaxed with Quentin in his arms, a hand coming up to card through his hair, pressing little kisses into Quentin’s hairline.

“Quentin, please, tell me something that  _ doesn’t _ sound like you’re throwing your life and the next million years away.”

Quentin wanted to stare into his eyes forever, but Eliot was right. They needed to talk, like adults.

“I think it's vaguely possible, that we can… there’s a potion, one I found in the library. Not the underworld, but on a trip to the main library, that can turn even godlike creatures into children. They’re no less powerful, he could  _ still _ be a danger to the universe, I’ll never deny that, but he would be forever little, and relatively easy to coddle at that point. I’m not… Eliot, I’m not doing this because I want another baby.” Though he didn’t deny that he honestly did. “But it can render him childlike. Curious but innocent. Unlikely to ever hurt anyone.”

Eliot looked him right in the eyes, and Quentin could tell he was trying to figure out a way to let him down gently. “Quentin, I know you loved Teddy when he was little. He was the sweetest baby boy, couldn’t have asked for a better child. But sometimes I think you forget, that even the best little boy, threw his fair share of tantrums.”

Quentin’s eyes were leaking, full of tears, and he couldn’t help the little shiver his body forced out as Quentin desperately tried not to cry. 

“I know. I’m not even saying that it’ll be possible for me to leave. I’m saying, I think I know some ways to make him mainly harmless, to the point where maybe visitors could be possible, maybe even have the door open. He’s the only one left. We have to try something. If he can’t be rehabilitated, maybe we can make him as harmless as possible, so at least I don’t lose everyone else too. No one said I  _ have _ to stay there, but I need to try.”

Eliot had to say yes. What’s the issue in letting him  _ try _ . “Okay, tell me what you’re planning to do to him?” 

God, none of this really sounded all that consensual, but it was better than letting him out to destroy the universe, right?

Quentin opened up his right hand to show him the little vial there. “From what she’s shown me about how he looks, this’ll age him down to about one and a half. Not my favorite age in the world, but they generally sleep through the night. No adult thoughts whatsoever. He’ll be looking at the universe through entirely childlike eyes.”

Eliot nodded, holding Quentin’s head against his chest while he refused to let the man go. He didn’t know how much longer he would  _ have _ Quentin. 

“What about the castle itself? I’m sure it won’t be all that conducive to keeping a baby happy.”

Quentin gave a little nod at that. “Unfortunately not. I’m going to need your help with that. We need to find some rooms to take over. Full nursery, playroom, kitchen with baby safe furnishings, an indoor garden if we can swing it.”

Eliot couldn’t help a little snicker. “That sounds so… suburban. Full on rich white mom who doesn’t need to work, even.”

Quentin couldn’t hold back his own grin at the idea, and leaned in to press a little kiss to Eliot’s lips. They haven’t done this in what feels like months, but the kiss felt as natural as breathing to him. 

“If a spoiled baby with a constant loving caregiver is what the universe needs to keep magic and keep away monsters, you know I’m willing.”

Eliot couldn’t help but kiss him again, and again, feeling hot in his chest. “This is perfect. The universe can only be saved by a man with a desperate need to be someone’s daddy.” His smile fell, and he looked sad. “You know… if you had ever said anything, I would have found a way. We could have had another.”

Quentin thought about that for a moment. “And Fen? She  _ lost _ a baby. I just miss being a parent. But we still have grandkids out there. Fen will never get your daughter back.”

Eliot nodded, feeling a little sick. “I know. I actually planned to talk to her about it soon. Like I said, there are spells. It’s not quite the same as a pregnancy, but I just can’t put her through that again. Imagine getting pregnant again after a stillbirth and not knowing if this one might die too.”

Quentin nodded, pressing back down into Eliot’s neck. They sat there for a while, feeling each other breathe.

“You know, there are spells to get men pregnant too, if that’s something you’re into.”

Quentin sat up with a bland look on his face. “Seriously? You want to talk about knocking me up now?”

Eliot gave a little shrug. “I… I guess so. It doesn’t have to be serious. It’s going to be lonely down in that castle.”

“A castle, that we can never bring a child into. El, children fight. It’s a fact of life. They squabble and argue over  _ toys _ . Imagine a regular human child getting into a fight with a baby monster and getting killed for it. This is it, El. If I want a kid, this has to be it.”

Eliot pulled him back in, not wanting Quentin to see that he might start crying too.

  * Quentin knew anyways.

***

Restoring magic was the first thing they did when they got in. Seven keys turned at the right time, and the water was flowing again. The slightly more annoying part was fighting off the librarian that popped into the room behind them, but, as always, Margo apparently had a  _ gun _ up her sleeve. 

“I feel as though you’re actually more American than the rest of us combined.”

Margo smiled at Kady while Quentin just looked horrified. It was always a little horrifying when someone was killed right in front of you. He’s just thankful that Irene was killed by the fairies, since he didn’t want to deal with  _ them _ now either. 

Ora looked a little horrified as well, but didn’t do much more then give a little shrug and turn towards the doors. “I should have done this before we started. I’ll lock the doors again, and as soon as the monster has accepted Quentin as the new warden, he’ll have complete control over them himself. Not even travelers can come here without the doors open.”

She motioned for Quentin to follow her, and he did, though he noticed that all of them seemed to take it as an invitation to follow as well. “He’s playing hide and seek right now. It’s the only thing I could do to convince him not to follow me here while the door was open. He’s getting bored though. When he’s accepted you as his new warden, you’ll be able to tell how he’s feeling after.”

Quentin nodded, patting down his pockets to find the little box he’d put in there, relieved to find it unharmed. 

“my love, do you want to come out to play?”

What came through the corridor looked like a young adult. Brown hair and excitable eyes. He looked at Quentin with a delighted grin. The rest of the Magicians were hidden in the background. 

It said something about his mental awareness as an adult looking child that he trusted his eyes far ahead of other senses, never even realizing anyone else was there. 

“Did you come to play with me?”

Quentin couldn’t hold back the gentle smile on his face, pulling out two items from his pocket. One of them was a deck of playing cards. “Yeah, kiddo, I came to play with you. I really want to stay with you as well.”

He blinked, head cocked to the side like a confused puppy. “Stay with me?”

Quentin nodded, holding up the cards. “Yeah. I wanted to show you some magic tricks. Do you want to come sit with me? I promise to show you something fun, and if you’re good, you’ll get a treat too.”

The young man looked absolutely excited by that idea, practically rushing to sit on the window sill with him, since there weren’t any benches in the corridor, and leaned against his side. Quentin knew two things right away: whoever he’s killed in here was likely a childish accident, and this boy might not be even slightly human, but he seemed to crave being held like one. 

Quentin paused before putting an arm up and around his shoulders, and couldn’t help but feel warm at the way the young man burrowed into his side at the touch. 

“Something fun?”

Quentin let out a watery little laugh, wondering if the monster had magic to make people imprint on him. Why else would Ora have gotten attached to him so fast as well? “Well, it’s just a special trick I know, but it’s my favorite trick, and I really hope you like it too.”

He tossed the cards up in the air, and for a second held his breath before he caught them in his magic webs, pulling them out and into strange formations. He was almost afraid to look at the monster, afraid that it wouldn’t entertain him at all. Ora said he liked  _ hide and seek _ , so what could he do but assume the young man would be amused by a card trick. 

He wasn’t lying though. It was still his favorite trick. That rush of delight as he remembered what it was like to suddenly know that magic was real.

He looked down at the young man, and couldn’t hold back the grin on his face when he realized how utterly  _ enchanted _ he looked.

He couldn’t help himself, he was getting attached at an alarming rate, and he half suspected it was a self preservation instinct on the monster’s part himself, to keep being taken care of and loved. 

But in that moment, Quentin didn’t care in the slightest if it was him or not. He wanted to wrap this boy up in arms that wouldn’t let him go, and keep him safe. 

He didn’t need to keep the universe safe from the monster, but the monster needed to be kept away from the brutal force that was all the rest of creation. 

He could only imagine the reason Ora would give this up, is if she was utterly  _ exhausted  _ and just couldn’t keep going. 

Maybe one day, he would leave here, just as tired, just as old, and hoping for age to catch up with him so he could move on to rest. 

That day wasn’t yet. 

The young man looked over at him, like he was his new favorite toy, and his grin was far too mischievous for Quentin. He was going to have to gain back that babyish innocence of not being big enough to manipulate anyone, if Quentin was going to take proper care of him. 

“Was I good?” Even as his face looked a little manipulative, the words sounded unsure of himself, as if he didn’t really know how to handle someone new. 

Quentin nodded, feeling his voice tight in his chest, unsure how to really say anything yet. He pulled out the second object. It was a little metal box, and he handed it over, feeling nervous already. 

The young man took it with a little smile, opening it up with a flourish. 

Quentin could  _ feel _ everyone else holding their breaths. 

Inside was a tiny round cookie, with a smiley face made out of chocolate in it. The monster smiled, holding the tin close. 

“It’s so powerful. What’ll happen when I eat it?” The smile never faded from his face, and Quentin wondered if the monster  _ would _ eat it or not. 

He could still find a way to stay his keeper as an adult, thought he would have to figure out fast how to keep him entertained, lest boredom come knocking and resentment develop. 

This bond needed to be instant from the start. They needed to  _ want _ each other from the very beginning. 

Before he could reply, the monster traced a hand along the edge of the cookie. “Oh, it’s so young! Will it make me young as well?”

Quentin opened and closed his mouth a few times, feeling nervous. “Well, I think it will.”

The young man just looked curious. No anger, no confusion. “Why do I need to be younger?”

Control, would be the universe's worst answer, to be perfectly honest. 

“Because you’ll be little enough for me to hold and love. I’ll be able to keep you safe in my arms.”

The monster gave him a playful little grin, motioning to the arm around his shoulders. “Feels safe to me.”

Quentin just smiled back, already feeling in his heart that there was no way he could turn around and leave this castle. He needed to be here. “Safer. So little that I can hold you and carry you, to feel you against me. It’s a silly little human wish, but we love carrying cute little things.”

Ora clutched at the wall to her right, looking a little weaker, and for a moment, Quentin thought she was scandalized by what Q was doing, about to stop him, before it suddenly hit him. She was centuries upon centuries old, and she was transferring the warden’s power to him. 

No, the young man was accepting him. Quentin could feel himself forming a magical set of heart eyes as he looked at him. He didn’t even look at Eliot like this, like he was perfectly infallible and could do no harm. 

It suddenly hit him, that this was his one chance to settle their relationship. This power hadn’t existed at the moment of the monster’s creation, the power to reduce an ancient evil. 

He hadn’t been fully honest when he told Eliot where he got the potion. It  _ was _ some old book, but it hadn’t been from the library. Julia had given it to him before she left. He hadn’t told El because he was terrified that Eliot still didn’t trust her. 

He was terrified the man he loved would tell him not to trust the best friend he’d ever had in his life. Because he actually  _ didn’t _ know for sure this potion would work. He was trusting her on blind faith. 

He closed his hands around the monster’s, arms nearly pulling the young man into his lap, would have if the monster wasn’t bigger than him right now, and pressed his lips to the monster’s cheek, hoping that curiosity was enough to make the monster understand that he could get more of that feeling if he was little enough to curl up on him. 

It somehow worked. 

The monster turned to him with a delighted grin on his face. “It’s a game? I think I want to play.”

Quentin could only hold his breath as a little cookie was eaten, and hold his breath for even longer as they waited to see if it would work. 

The monster didn’t seem to care if it would work or not, and maybe, even if it was a placebo, it would convince him that being good would get him nice things, but he turned in Quentin’s arms, crawling half into his lap -as best he could do with Quentin’s body so much smaller than him right now- and buried his face in his neck, making cubbish noises as he didn’t even wait, taking the affection he so greatly desired. 

Ora started to collapse to the stone floors, but Margo was there to stop her before she hit down too hard, helping her regain just enough balance to get to the rest of their group, still entirely ignored by the monster in Quentin’s arms. He met Eliot’s eyes for a long moment, and Eliot looked like he couldn’t find anyone else’s gaze. Like he didn’t want to look at anyone else. 

There was no going back now, not now that Quentin was the warden. 

Quentin felt like saying something, before he felt it. The clothes under his hands were growing loose, and there was a little hiccuping squeak from the face in his neck, and all Quentin could do was hold him as the potion  _ worked _ . 

Within a minute, the young man in his arms wasn’t a young man. This monster, was barely an armful, clinging to him with tiny little fingers caught up in too much cloth and whimpering at the distress of it. 

Quentin couldn’t do anything but divest him of the majority of his clothes, other than a crisp linen shirt that must have been under his jacket, and even then, it was more of a dress on his little body. 

He was about one and a half. And that’s how little he would stay until Julia provided him with an antidote.  _ If _ , he ever needed to ask for one. 

He stood up with the little one in his arms, arranging him against his chest again with a little sigh. Now he wasn’t just imprinted, he was absolutely in  _ love _ with this baby bundle in his arms. 

He looked down into that tearful little face, expecting to see betrayal, that the monster wasn’t just little physically, he was bound to that littleness emotionally and magically. All he saw through those tears was pure love. He let out a gusty sigh, a smile forming on his lips as he adjusted the boy to the crook of his left arm. He used part of a dropped cloth to gently wipe away those tears, before leaning in to press his face to that little head. 

He was bigger, but he smelled just like a newborn, all full of baby smells, and in that moment Quentin was somewhere else, holding little Teddy in his arms. The only thing missing was Eliot’s arms around him.

He looked up at a touch to his shoulder, and almost sobbed when he realized it was Eliot, giving him a cautious look like he was afraid of being turned away. 

Quentin didn’t give up his little armful, but he stepped into that embrace with little thought to anyone else, letting Eliot hold him when everything felt so new and vaguely terrifying. 

He had a little one. He was essentially a parent again. Eliot wasn’t avoiding him though the plain realization had been clear on his face as he knew that Quentin had lied about the potion. Eliot still chose to wrap him up in his arms after Quentin chose a monster over freedom. 

Quentin couldn’t hold back the little gust of air as he pushed as far as he could go into the man’s arms, pressing a little kiss to the edge of Eliot’s jaw. 

“Oh, so apparently no one was going to tell me that queliot became a ship sometime between the last time we saw them.” Josh sounded displeased, like he was being left out again, before Margo spoke up to his side. 

“Um, well, I don’t think the rest of us knew.”

Quentin couldn’t even bring himself to look at any of them from his hiding spot in Eliot’s arms. He didn’t know how much longer he would have this spot to hide at all, he didn’t want to come out. He just wanted to stay in that garden in their perfect world, with a little newborn baby boy in his arms, breathing in that new baby smell, and pretending they still had a whole lifetime together ahead of them. 

Eliot was carding his fingers through Quentin’s hair while they ignored the commentary from the peanut gallery, all arguing over if any of them could have possibly known that they were together.

Quentin let out a weak little sigh into Eliot’s neck, looking down to see the baby watching them with a little grin on his face, reaching up to press a little hand to Quentin’s mouth. Quentin couldn’t help but press a kiss to that little palm, smiling down at him with adoration in his eyes. 

“Do they ever shut up?”

Eliot looked over to the group of them, with Ora in the middle, looking weak, but quite alive, while Josh kept her steady enough to stay standing. He smirked, turning back down to Quentin. “Just think, if you’d agreed to just get knocked up, they likely would have popped by now.”

The room was deadly silent for a moment, before Penny let out a little ‘ew, didn’t know you were into that freak shit’ and suddenly Quentin couldn’t even  _ think _ of looking back up at any of them with his cheeks  _ burning _ and just hid himself back in Eliot’s neck with a little whine. 

“Why do you keep coming back to that?”

Eliot leered at the rest of the group, looking fairly smug. “Maybe I have a fetish, maybe I just want you to be happy and know you want a kid. Does it have to be something big?”

Before the rest of the group could start arguing again, there was a sound like a ringing against the back of Quentin’s head. 

“Wait, what’s that noise?”

Everyone else went quiet, and when the noise came again, no one else startled but him. “And again, what is that? Ringing? Like a bell?”

Ora stood up a little straighter where she was sagged again Josh, eyes knowing. “A bell in your head? Someone’s outside the castle, asking to be let in. Concentrate, you’ll figure out who it is without much more than a thought.”

Quentin’s eyes were barely shut for a second before they fluttered back open, and he gave a little smile. “Julia.”

Ora nodded at him, looking unconcerned with it all. “Well then, warden, you control the door now. It’s your decision. Not even gods can get in here if you don’t let them.”

Quentin gave a little smile, pulling himself out of Eliot’s arms with a look down to the contented, half asleep babe in his arms, and started heading out of the room again, the group following after. 

The door was a little trickier. It took Quentin a moment to realize he couldn’t just think it open, he had to concentrate on every single lock there, individually opening each one, like he was picking them with his mind. It felt weird to do it without the movements, but as he did, he was rubbing the little one’s back. 

The monster -the baby, really, his little one, who he was meant to be with- was nearly asleep in his arms, tiny and content with the world around him.

The door opened, and Julia stepped through, giving them all a little smile as she came in. 

Quentin felt an odd feeling of nerves in his chest as they stood there, and the feeling was honestly so foreign that he looked to Ora in confusion at it. This wasn’t his normal anxiety. 

She smiled at him. “You’ll feel a tightness in your chest when he’s near an open door, like you think you’ve forgotten something important. Lock the door again and it’ll ease. He’s safe near doors as long as nothing can temp him to leave, but you’ll feel it like a parent watching their child play with a wild animal. Anything could happen.”

Quentin closed the door again, and it seemed a little easier this time. The anxiety disappeared like it hadn’t been there to begin with, and he looked at Julia with a smile. 

“I thought you were off at goddess training camp?”

Julia was giving him a brilliant smile, looking absolutely radiant. “Well, my mentor knew that I couldn’t focus on much without knowing you were safe and happy, and she suggested I take my first act of creation, and make something that I know I can move on from. This is my first act of creation.”

Quentin raised an eyebrow, looking curious. “This castle? Ember and Umber made this castle.”

She shook her head. “No. They made a prison. This is a prison to keep in monsters. I want to make it a paradise that you and he never wish to leave. You’ve already done you part by soothing him, giving him wants and needs so little in comparison to what he could have grown to ask for. But it still doesn’t make this a home. I’ll make him a paradise that  _ neither _ of you will ever wish to leave, all within these castle walls, safe from anyone who would harm either of you.”

Quentin seemed to be an emotional wreck today. Others would argue that he was an emotional wreck at all times, but he just couldn’t keep the tears out of his eyes at the moment. 

Julia wrapped him and the baby up in a hug, different than Eliot’s, who could dwarf them all in size, but somehow so much more, like energy itself had wrapped them in a safe cocoon. 

“I would love that, thank you Jules.”

Julia went to Ora next, the two women looking at each other for a long moment before Julia wrapped her up too, their voices quiet and just for each other. 

Quentin found himself surrounded by the rest of them, and suddenly his heart broke a little as he realized they were all saying goodbye. 

Eliot was standing behind him, arms wrapped around his waist as he listened to them say they didn’t expect to see him for a long while, and Quentin grieved, knowing that he wouldn’t feel his touch for so much longer. That Eliot’s loss would hurt him most in the end. 

Eliot didn’t speak again until Margot was already on her way to the door, chatting about some party she planned to throw. 

“Margo.”

Margo stopped, giving him a reprimanding look, as if to tell him he knew better than to interrupt her. “Eliot.”

“I’m not going.”

Margo went deadly silent. “Excuse me?”

Eliot tucked himself further against Quentin’s back, and for a moment, Q wondered if he was  _ hiding _ behind him and the baby. “I’m not going. It’s not forever, but I can’t leave him here alone.”

Quentin’s heart broke, and he wondered if Eliot was mad about him not saying where the potion came from. The library didn’t have the power to turn a monster into a child, but a goddess could create a way. 

“El… Jules isn’t going to hurt me, I promise. You don’t have to stay to… protect me.”

Eliot pulled back enough to look him in the face, both of them turned to the side to properly see each other. “You think  _ that’s _ why I want to stay? Because I don’t trust a goddess who rendered a monster incapable of harming you and is planning to give you a veritable paradise to live in?”

Quentin cringed, feeling a nervous squirm in his stomach. “I… I guess, yeah? Why else would you want to stay? You’ll be locked up in here too.”

Eliot scoffed, shaking his head. “Oh boo who, I’ll be locked up in a paradise with a man I lived with for  _ fifty years _ and won’t be able to stop thinking about if I walk out that door.”

“Fifty years? Wait, when the fuck did that happen?”

Quentin looked over at Kady, cheeks slowly turning red as he realized neither of them have told anyone but Margo this story, and even she didn’t know the details of it.

“Um. When we found the fourth key, you had to complete a puzzle to get it. It… took us fifty years to do it, here on Fillory, in the past. We… had a family. I got married and we were all happy, we had a  _ son-“ _ he trailed off, feeling sick. He’s only told one other person about this. His father. And even then, it hurt so badly he couldn’t even properly begin to tell him exactly what he and Eliot had been to each other all that time. 

Eliot was folded over him again, like he could keep the ache from him with his mere presence. Quentin took a few deep breaths, leaning back into him with a little sigh. 

Margo was quiet for so long that Quentin assumed she was planning his death, but when she looked up, her eyes were kind, like they only got with Eliot. She nodded once. “Okay. You aren’t the warden though, you  _ will _ come out eventually. See to it that you don’t die before you can see me again.”

To be honest, that was probably the best approval they were going to get from her, but it felt good to hear it. 

Quentin watched them go with Ora, feeling a knot in his chest as the door was open, as the passage was vulnerable to escape. But there was a lightness when they were gone, just him and Eliot and Julia, wondering what was going to be in their future. There would be a future, he could only hope it would be something like a garden. 

**Author's Note:**

> It's my birthday so I made you all a present :)
> 
> fillorysuggest.tumblr.com (yes I changed it, the previous blog was soft blocked so none of my posts would show up in tags and I got annoyed)
> 
> Future fics are all gonna be 100% domestic fluff and baby cuddles and happy Queliot and like???? Don't even @ me, I aint apologizing.


End file.
